SHELL-RIDDLED BARQUE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2693, 12 February 1916, Page 13

SHELL-RIDDLED BARQUE

STORY IN' THE PRIZE COUKT. .JF' 1 ? story of the shell-riddled barque, " illiam T. Lewis, which was kept afloat only by its cargo ol" timber after tile luwoe ilnnß by a ticrman submarine, wan related in tho Admiralty Court, London, recently. In. this condition tho vessel was salved by the London steamer Ualakani, whose _ owners, masters, and crew jvero awarded <£5250 for salvage. In malt. lng the avar<l Sir Samuel Evans remarked on the sad fafco of the Balalcani, which was sunk by a mine soon afterwards, eoveral of her crew being drowned. The value of tho salved properly was jeiO.SOO. The president said that tho case was unique, because the vessel was left derelict ■is the crew were ordered at very short •lotico by tho officers of Hie German submarine to leavo her. The submarine, according to the evidence of the master •if the barque, fired ono shot across tlw dows as an intimation that way must of. taken oft" the vessel, but immediately afterwards the Germans followed that shot up, for some reason best known to themselves, by firing into the rigging bel'oro the crew"could get into the boats. When they did get into the boals they were left about 80 or HO miles away from land. They wero told by tho master.,of tho submarine that they had got Snils, a compass, and a chart; and he added that impertinent interrogatory: "What >no?e do yon want?" Unhappily a calamity happened to tho salving vessel after tile services. fills foundered us the result of striking a mine somewhere in the English Channel or in *lie North Sea. Of the award «C 3500 would go to tho owners of the Balakani, «£too to her master, and a special allowance of .220 to the mate. The balanco of <£K]3o would be divided amongst the crew, nccording to their rating, and the representatives of those who lost their lives, the mate fin addition to the .£2O) and the five men who accompanied him in tho boat to have ! treble shares.